(S1) Episode 2: The Black Forest
by J. David Reed
Summary: With the events of Broadplow Institute just over, and a mystery hanging over them, Clara nd The Doctor go on a camping trip that quickly goes terribly wrong. But, between trying to get Clara and the TARDIS back, the Doctor muses over his past, and how exactly long he's lived, and how many mysteries he's got left in him. Episode 2 of a short series; cont. From Episode 1
1. Chapter 1: The Garden

'Where to now, Doc?' Clara looked at him. It was the next morning. 'What do we do?'

'Up to you, really.' He turned to her, his eyes red from lack of sleep. She wondered if he slept usually. And where? 'We have no leads on what happened to Adam, and who helped him, or why. Nothing.'

'Maybe something quiet?' she asked.

'I think we've deserved quiet.'

'So... well, when I was younger my parents liked to go camping. But it was always better with friends.'

'Am I a friend?'

'I hope so. I haven't got many.'

'Ridiculous.'

'There's more than one reason I want to travel. Besides, I didn't want any reason to stay around. I have my list.'

He looked at her with sad, old eyes. 'Camping?'

'Yeah!'

'Night skies, peaceful nights, grassy days. I hate the slow-road.'

'We won't even take the TARDIS,' she said. A nervous, almost disgruntled noise came from somewhere. The Doctor smiled.

'And you wonder why she doesn't like you.'

'I knew she didn't!'

'Like I said, a cat! Besides, I thought you were bonding?'

'Me too...' she pouted.

'Well, no more abandonment threats. She's my most faithful companion.'

He took to the controls, flying about the console. 'I know the most perfectest camping spot in the multiverse!'

'Where?'

'The Garden!'

'The garden? Wow.'

'What?'

'I was expecting, you know, otherworldly exploits!'

'This is otherworldly! It's a planet that is completely untouched by any sentient life. Passers-by come and go, great place for hiking, but no resident life aside from the plant life. It's name translates into English as 'The Garden'. How's that?'

'I guess I can put up with that,' she smiled.

She caught what she thought might be a short glimpse of hurt in the Doctor's eyes. Desperate not to insult him, she quickly backtracked. 'It sounds awesome, Doctor.'

'I know, right?!'

'Have you been here before?'

'A couple times, yes.'

'With your Granddaughter?'

'Yes, actually. Long time ago. She loved it.'

'What was her name?'

'Susan Foreman was the human name she used. I called her Susan, usually. She always wanted to be human.' He smiled. 'Maybe I picked that up.'

'I think she got it from you.'

'Not a chance. She was far too hard-headed to take anything from my side. She was all herself. I think I do that, though, sometimes.'

'What?'

'Do things, say things, that remind me of specific people.'

'Do you?'

'I think so.'

'Like what?'

'Well, anything. Stupid little things. But it's the little stuff that matters.'

The TARDIS landed with a _thud_ and a _screech_. The Doctor grinned at Clara, and she stood with him, opening the doors inwards, smelling the scents of a new world.

The Doctor stepped out, feeling the twigs snap between his shoe and the dirt. It stank of green, trees with golden brown bark stretching to touch the crimson sky above. The leaves reflected the blood-like glow against them, shining in the autumn.

'Welcome to The Garden. Where the skies change with the seasons, and the population of the whole world is limited to twenty at any one time. The whole world. This is exclusive camping.'

'It's beautiful.'

'It is isn't it?' He looked back to her, stretching out his arm. She looked almost scared to step out. 'Come on, then!'

She smiled, taking his hand, and stepped onto the deep red leaves. Her hand left his, and he turned away. 'It's autumn red at the moment. Shall we? I'll get the tent!' He turned back to the TARDIS but stopped when Clara was gone.

'Clara?' he looked into the TARDIS, around it. 'CLARA?!' he yelled. It echoed from the trees around him, bouncing back onto him from all over. A thousand screams of 'Clara', twisted by the repetition of his voice.

No answer.

'Why does this always happen?!' he moaned, getting into the TARDIS, preparing to trace her, when it disappeared too. In front of his eyes.

'Yet another unaccessible TARDIS and missing Clara. My life is getting repetitive. I've lived too long,' he mused, trying not to panic.

He looked around the scarlet forest, not sure what to do next.

'You exceeded capacity,' a metallic voice told her. Her eyes hurt, so she couldn't make out who it was. 'You shall be sent to our closest opening...' It whirred for a moment, before clicking to a stop. 'We have selected a destination. Winter sixteen-apple-B. Do you accept?'

'Wha...'

'Accepted.'

Her stomach churned as she was sent whirling away again, this time feeling the dirt against her cheek. She sighed, thinking she would be lifted by the Doctor to safety, and they could get the hell out of here as soon as possible.

But even when the hand gripped her arm, she knew it wasn't a concerned ancient man, picking her up to comfort her. It was too rushed.

'Come on!' said the voice, a woman's, pulling her up. Clara sat up, and was yanked upwards and dragged along behind this strange woman, through a forest that was far different from the one she had left.

She was expecting scarlet leaves and crimson skies, but instead there was darkness. The sky was the deepest blue it might as well have been night, and the sun seemed to glow a dim grey. The trees were bare of leaves, and the woman pulled her arm, pleading her to move forwards.

'Run, you idiot!' she shouted, before letting go of Clara and making a break for it. Not sure what else she could do, she chased the running woman through the trees, desperate not to get lost.

'Where are we going?' she called out.

'This way!' the woman called back. She kept running, leading Clara deeper into the wood, thinks of trunks getting closer together, closing in on her.

'Why are we running?!'

'They'll drain you dry if they get you!'

'What will?!'

But the woman was gone. Clara couldn't see her anymore. The trees had become too close to each other. She had slowed to a crawl to move between them. She might as well have been moving between the cracks of a wooden block.

She wished the Doctor was there with her.


	2. Chapter 2: The ICC

She had to keep running. She had no way back, now. The trees had gotten far too thick, though, and she was reduced to a slow run, which crawled to a walk, then to a literal crawl.

Her legs burned.

Branches stuck to her clothes, dragging at her.

She had a cut on her face from a thorn that had sliced her cheek open.

Her breath was too loud. It gave her away.

'Bloody hell,' she said under her breath, as her hand fell through the bed of dead leaves and dirt she was crawling over, into a small pit large enough to swallow her entire hand. 'What the...'

She tried to pull it out, but she could feel something clinging to her, holding her under.

_Ok,_ she thought. _Now I can panic._

She could hear it now, the shuffling. Something was moving, coming towards her. The trees stopped her from seeing anything past five metres, though.

She could just hear it.

Her arm was being pulled downwards so hard, however, that she had to take her mind of the mountainous footsteps and try to get her arm back.

She, in a moment of panicked stupidity, pushed down her other arm to try and get the first out, and soon realised her mistake as she was pulled downwards to the shoulders.

The strain on her neck was searing; it felt like she was going to snap backwards. Whatever it was pulling on her arms, it seemed to get a boost of energy and manage to the full top of her body into the dirt, taking her under with a muffled scream.

The hands dragged her downwards, and all she could think was _what if I don't get to say goodbye. What if, one day, back on Earth, I just didn't come home?_

But light started to breath through the brown, and she was greeted with the sight of six people pulling on her arm, all standing on a platform to get up to the dirt ceiling.

They lowered her down, coughing and spurting mud from her lips, dragging it from her eyes.

'Hello?' one of the people asked, a man, maybe in his thirties. Human. A woman, the woman Clara had seen earlier, hung at his elbow. They watched her, looking for signs of life.

'Hi,' she said, trying to smile.

'Oh thank God!' the woman said, releasing a breath. She rushed forwards, taking Clara in an embrace that was tight but comforting. Clara accepted it, hugging away the fear that was only slightly passing.

'Erm, where am I?' she asked.

'Under the dirt, in a cave,' the woman said. 'I'm Loa, what's your name?'

'Clara.'

'Hi Clara!' the woman was younger than the man, in her mid twenties. They were the only two humans (aside from her) in the room.

There was a humanoid, Clara would say, who seemed somewhere between male and female, with yellowy-brown skin, but no eyes. It had slightly concave sections on it's face where eyes should be, with a prominent bone structure that made it seem dramatic and intense. It didn't help that it was staring at Clara with it's eyeless gaze.

'That's Poluinithui,' the woman said.

'Pol-what now?'

'Poluinithui. Call her Polly.'

'Okay! Polly, hey there,' Clara waved. Polly didn't acknowledge her at all. There was a sleeping mass under a cloak in the corner, whose breath was quiet and soft. Nobody even looked over.

'She's not in the most talkative mood,' Loa said. 'He son is up top. We lost him.'

'Lost him?'

'You heard the footsteps,' the man said. 'Whatever it is, it takes us.'

'Takes who?'

'Us. Campers, like me and Loa. Hikers. Sightseers. Any one. We haven't even seen it. It's just the footsteps and if you fall behind...'

'Don't scare her, Kel,' Loa said.

'Scare her? We just pulled her underground on an alien planet she obviously doesn't know.'

'But,' Clara said. 'Why would this place be open? To the public, I mean.'

'What, with giant, people stealing creature roaming around?' Polly said. 'No idea.'

'And what's with the sky? It was red a minute ago,' Clara said, remembering being with the Doctor.

'No, it's only red in the Autumn. This is Winter,' Kel told her.

'Well, how long does it take to change season?'

'Seven hundred days.' He looked at her. 'We've been here for months, and there's no difference. A black sky, and constant footsteps. The only safe place is underground.'

'In this cave?'

'Yes.'

'But there are five of us.'

'And there are fifteen out there, we know.'

'So... how do we save them?'

'Save them?'

'Well, that's what we do. My friend and me. The Doctor. We save people.'

'You came here to save us?'

'Actually, we came here for a camping trip, but now we might as well!'

'Well thanks for the confidence,' Polly interjected.

As the heat from the two burning moon overheard beat down on the Doctor, even his night was uncomfortable.

The Garden, you see, was a haven of life for two reasons; 1) it had the perfect amounts of heat, light and water during it's seasons and 2) it had no major predators or threats to other life. The only thing that hunts trees here is other trees, looking for space for roots. It's a food race.

At night, the two moons that had set alight hundreds of years ago watched over the garden. The sun had died a long time ago, and so the first and only major outside influence on this world had taken place. The Intergalactic Conservation Committee had deemed that The Garden was a landmark and deserved conservation through any means, and so set light to the methane moons to create a synthetic sun.

The ecosystem had adjusted accordingly, over the decades.

Of course, the Doctor didn't care.

He didn't care about the moons.

He didn't notice the trees hunting each other slowly.

He didn't think about the I.C.C.

All he could focus on was Clara, and how he had lost her. He had lost her again.

The Garden didn't have a 'base of commands', as there were no commands to give. The only regulation was of the people who got in or out, twenty at a time.

He followed the trace that the Sonic Screwdriver gave him. He was going to find the closest people to him. And he was going to find a way out.

The TARDIS may have relocated, again. He really needed to change that back.

For now the soft buzzing lead him off into the forest. He knew it was a dangerous area, mainly for the possibility of getting lost in the thick trees.

As he progressed, the buzzing slowed into a beeping that signified how far away he was. The closer the life-form, the faster the beeping.

He stood over a slight lump of dirt and pointed the screwdriver in every direction, trying to distinguish where the life form was. He span around, and pointed it up, and then down, hearing the beeping increase only a little.

Crouching made the beeping increase further, and he decided that there was probably something under him. Stopping the screwdriver, he instead pulled from his pocket a small device that, when folded out, resembled a shovel, to which he grinned and started to dig.

About a foot into the earth his hand poked through into open space.

'Do I have to dig?' he asked, looking at the hole. 'I have to dig,' he decided.


	3. Chapter 3: Polly's Pocket

Breaking through the dirt, the Doctor emerged, head down, into a small cavern. His arms and head hung from the ceiling, waving around slightly as he tried to scope the area.

He managed to get the majority of his body through, before he realised that he no way of getting down.

He dropped like a gangly, multi-limbed sack of potatoes onto the rock floor, and bounced up, expecting someone to point and laugh.

Nodding at his own achievement, he wiped some of the dirt that had matted his hair and started scanning the cavern for the life-signs the screwdriver had picked up earlier.

It drew him to a small crack in the wall, maybe a half-foot thick. He approached it cautiously, not certain what it is that could be inside. Waiting for him. Or cowering? Hunting?

'Hello?' he said, making his presence known. He heard a shuffle. 'I'm the Doctor.'

'The Doctor?' came a voice. It was old, rusty. 'You're the Doctor?'

'Yes. You've heard of me? Have we met?'

'No, no. I knew a friend of yours.'

'Oh really? Who?'

'Clara Oswald,' said the voice. The Doctor frowned.

'How do you know Clara?'

'She came here, the winter before last. Out of nowhere. No bracelet, no idea where she was. All she talked about was you.'

The Winter before last?

'Where is she, do you know?' the Doctor thought that, even if she had spent a while here, he could still save her. This was Amelia all over again, waiting for him.

'She's gone,' the voice in the wall said.

'Gone?'

'She died, Doctor. I'm sorry. You missed your chance.'

The Doctor swallowed.

'What's your name?' he asked the wall.

'Poluinithui,' it said. 'Call me Polly.'

'Right, well, Polly. I want you to come with me, because something very wrong is going on here and I need to get out. I'm going to the top... as soon as I get my box back. Have you seen it? It's a big blue box, light on top, in a bad mood?'

'I can't come.'

'Okay, well, that's fine. I can come back for you, if you stay here?'

'No, I cannot move. You don't understand,' Polly said. 'I have been merged by The Garden.'

'Merged?'

'The Garden, Doctor, is always starving. A thing of life needs a source. It became greedy. So they sustained it... with us.'

'What?'

'I am being slowly eaten by this world, Doctor. The footsteps found me, and I was taken here, and I was fed to it. I am barely alive.'

'Oh, Polly...'

'Don't you start. Clara gave me enough sympathy before she disappeared.'

'She disappeared?'

'Yes. Assumed dead.'

'So she might not be?'

'I suppose...'

'Hope! I have hope!'

'Must be nice,' she said sharply, still little more than a voice in a wall to the Doctor. He couldn't see for the darkness.

'Look, I'll find a way to save you, Poluinithui. I'll save you and everyone else who have been fed to this world.'

'Don't bother,' Polly sighed. 'It's strangely peaceful, actually. I just wish it was more of a choice, rather than, you know, making me dinner.'

'I'm coming back,' the Doctor said, looking upwards. 'As soon as I figure out how to get out.'

'There's an exit,' Polly said. 'Behind that stone. It goes to a tunnel, it will lead you out into a clearing.'

The Doctor could see the large stone, and even the gap poking out behind it. 'Thank you.'

'No problem,' Polly said, reserving herself to her fate

The Doctor struggled with the rock for a moment, before finding a way to edge it across and fit his failing body through the gap, running down the tunnel to the clearing.

'So... what now?' Clara asked.

'What do you mean 'what now'?' Loa asked in that sweet tone she had.

'Well, what do we do now?'

'Nothing. We wait. We do runs to collect food once a day, and that's how I saw you. That makes it Kel's turn tomorrow, but we don't leave the cave.'

'Why?'

'The footsteps,' Loa said. 'They kind of imply a larger thing.'

'But this is The Garden, right? No predators, just plants...'

'But what if it is a plant?' the black mass in the corner breathed. Loa, Kel and Polly all looked to it slight fear.

'A plan with feet?' Clara asked.

'There are moving cacti,' the mass said. 'And singing vines. Some worlds have flowers that sprout wings to find where they should pollinate and grow. Others have plant that show only a small portion above ground, with colonies of things living within their roots. Why not walking trees?'

'But it sounds huge...' Clara said. 'Actually... no. It's not footsteps.'

A loud boom came from above.

'How can you say that? Kel asked.

'Because we would feel it,' she said. 'A footstep would shake us. That's... yeah, a booming kind of ominous noise, but it's not a footstep.'

'Trust me,' Polly said. 'It's a footstep.'

'I'll prove it,' Clara smiled. 'Where's the way out?'

'Behind there,' Loa pointed to a rock. 'You're not going out there, are you?'

'Of course I am,' Clara said. 'I can't stay cooped up in here. Chances are, you lot have been hiding under here scared of nothing.'

'But they disappear,' Polly said. 'Whatever is walking around up there is taking people. It took...' She stopped, and Clara watched her solemnly.

'Well then,' she said, pushing against the rock. 'If I find anything, I'll bring him to you.' Clara smiled. 'We help, like I said.'

'You and your Doctor?'

'My and my Doctor,' Clara said, eventually getting the rock to shift enough to get through, with a little help from Kel.

She followed the stone tunnel out into a small clearing, where the booming 'footsteps' seemed to have walked past. The sounds were behind her, slowly fading to nothing.

She walked out into the clearing, following the steps. Eventually, if it was a creature, or even a plant, it would have to stop. Something like that would have to rest, surely?

Clara followed it into the trees, leaving the clearing, back into the thick, almost solid woods. After hours, the navy sky became black, and the two balls of fire in the sky set. The night was freezing, and she had nowhere to go for warmth.

Huddling down in a small gap between two roots of a large tree, she cuddled up as much as he could, into a tight ball, and closed her eyes. She slept in batches. For a few hours, she'd sleep, then for an hour she'd lie awake, thinking about where she was. The Garden was an awful place.


	4. Chapter 4: Coward

Emerging out into the clearing, the Doctor thought over Polly's words. Clara had been here for over a year, if she was right. A year in a world that ate it's inhabitants. And they wondered why there was nothing but plants here.

Poly had been a bust. No bracelet he was going to get there. He needed a back-up. He needed a way out. He needed to find 'they'; whoever it was who was feeding these people to the trees. And how were they doing it?

Over and over, the Doctor recited all the adventures he'd had. The life-threatening monsters. The tragic goodbyes. The running. The fire and the heat. Adrenaline and cowardice. Saving lives and dooming his friends. Everyone he'd ever loved, gone.

So many people had come and gone. It was, of course, all his fault.

He wondered for a moment exactly what percentage of the universe's death toll over all was his fault. He'd committed genocide, after all. Several times, if you count deleted timelines. He'd murdered and manipulated. He was the monster, after all.

But he was a monster with responsibilities. And he was not going to let Clara die here.

He had to save her.

It was his job.

He'd told her that._ It's what we do_. And she had been happy to jump into the danger, to travel with him. She had barely questioned it. She wasn't suspicious of him, of his past.

She should be.

Heroes are fairy-tales, after all. Bad stories that don't age well. A questionable moral and a twisted secret. Heroes are monsters.

But this wasn't a story about him chasing after his own issues. He'd run away from that his whole life, he wasn't about to turn back now. Maybe he should.

_Coward._

This story was about Clara. What she was. The mystery surrounding an ordinary girl who jumped into a world she didn't understand, and was going to die again. First in fire, then in ice. Now she would die in his hands, or at least to his fault.

When was it not his fault?

He thought too much.

The Doctor moved forwards, as the moons burned over-head. The sky a blood-red, hauntingly hanging over him.

This was supposed to be a camping trip.

He took out the sonic screwdriver and scanned, this time ignoring the signals pointing to Polly. Changing the parameters from 'heartbeats', he had it scan for anything that was not plant-life. He got an instant blip directly in front of him. Into the trees.

He smiled and started off, tripping several times over roots and fallen branches, into the dense woodland.

The beeping grew in volume as he head in a direction, until he could see the mass of clothes maybe thirty metres in the distance, where the trees had thinned out a little. He could only just see it, but he was sure that was her jacket.

His stomach dropped.

He raced over, as fast as he could, falling once over a thick, purplish branch that caught on his shirt, swinging him down. He lost his balance and sense of direction, forgetting which way the coat was in.

Walking in circle, he managed to locate it from a distance, and whilst he knew he should have raced over, he couldn't. He stopped dead.

He could see her red shoulder bag, glinting out of the dirt, with her jacket under it.

The steps he took were soft, barely breaking twigs as he moved. He had never been so gracious in his life, he thought. And that's a long time.

Navigating the trees and the leaves, he came to the jacket, and quickly found it was empty. Clara wasn't there.

So why...

He looked at his screwdriver, which was still beeping away, as though she was right here. Or, as though something was.

That's when he heard it. The sound he had heard everyday, every moment. The sound of everything and everywhere.

The howling song of the TARDIS filled the woods, as the Doctor saw it flash, flickering into existence over Clara's jacket and bag. The Doctor reached out, trying to grab on, remembering how Jack had done it that time.

But his fingers fell through, like he was trying to catch smoke. It was on the wrong side of materialisation.

He hoped for a second that the screwdriver was picking up Clara, but when the TARDIS left, the beeping stopped. It was picking up the TARDIS; a life-form outside of plant life.

He looked down to Clara's jacket, rifling through the pockets. He felt slightly bad for it, but kept going anyway.

In her bag he found her purse, within which was a photo of her mother. She would never leave this.

She'd left in a hurry.

He picked up the bag and the jacket, opening his bigger-on-the-inside pockets, and dropping them in (with a squeeze).

If something had caused her to leave her things like this, it must have been a surprise. Something she couldn't escape.

The Doctor thought back to times when new enemies had come to light. He could remember the steel walls enclosing on him when he Dalek drones poisoned him. He could feel the rocks of caves and the waves of air. Every moment of his life flowed through him. The fear. The loss. The love. Family and friends. Creatures and wonder and travelling and fantasy. At a price.

'Stop whining,' he scorned himself. He continued forwards, occasionally hearing the TARDIS half-materialise somewhere. Leading him. Taking him somewhere.

Eventually the trees thinned, turning more into bush-life, where the grass, green and silky, had grown tall and shielded the bright moons from view.

Wind brushed over him for the first time, making the towers of emerald shimmer all around. It was truly beautiful.

The TARDIS lead him, vaguely, through the thick grass clearing to a space where the grass was much calmer, as thought it was cut and kept in nice condition routinely. That shouldn't be there.

The noise of the TARDIS cut out, leaving the Doctor alone. In a field which shouldn't exist.

He could see something glinting, a bracelet in the grass. He smiled, bounding over. As he picked it up, he slipped it over his thin wrist and pushed the button on the side...

Nothing.

He was expecting a teleport, or a hologram, or something. But no, there was nothing.

He took it off and 'sonic'ed it, finding that rain had made it useless. Probably the reason why whoever had it threw it off. He was able to dry it with the sonic, forcing out the moisture. A small cloud puffed out of the button on the bracelet, and he tried it again. This time he felt a buzz, and energy started to build, like a sort of static cloud around him.

A crack of lightning later, he was gone.


	5. Chapter 5: A Tin Box

The floor his knees hit was metal.

He smiled.

He was off The Garden.

Opening his eyes, he saw that he was in a small room, with twenty round lights on the ceiling. One for each person of the population.

Before him stood a door, slightly opened, waiting for him. He exited the room, stepping into a glass box that stood a hundred feet above the trees of The Garden. The floor and three walls were built of glass, then the door behind him, and the dull grey ceiling low overhead.

'Hello?' he called out, unable to take his eyes away from the breathtaking views. Everywhere around him was a green sea of life, honest and pure, beautifully quiet.

'Member,' came a voice, robotic. 'What is your name?' It was a small box that hovered at head-height, having one grate at the front, a speaker to talk.

'Ah a robot, excellent. So this is ground control?'

'What is your name?'

'Oh, you're not scripted are you?'

'What is your name?'

'You're no fun.' The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, soniced the box, and smiled. 'Now,' he said. 'Tell me why you are feeding people to this planet?'

'Feeding is not an order.'

'So, you're not feeding them?'

'Negative.'

'What are the footsteps?'

'There is nothing sentient on The Garden but the Members.'

'Where is Clara Oswald?'

'She was put on The Garden.'

'When?'

'Winter sixteen-apple-B.'

'Send me there.'

'Unable.'

'Why?'

'You would exceed capacity.'

'Right, so there are twenty people already down there?'

'Affirmative.'

'Then bring someone up and send me down in their place.'

'Unable.'

'Why?'

'Telebands must be activated by user.'

'There must be a way...' The Doctor looked at the box, floating near his head. 'Where is my TARDIS?'

'Unrecognised life-form was incompatible with teleport.'

'Well, it would be,' the Doctor said. 'So it's stuck, somewhere in the time stream, trying to get through. That means there has to be some kind of bubble... lock...' he frowned. 'That can't be a coincidence.'

'Coincidence?'

'I saw a bubble lock the last place I was. That can't be... but how. How would someone be able to predict me like that... I'm getting predictable.'

The box floated silently, as though watching him.

'Do you know what I'm going to do?' The Doctor asked it.

'No,' it responded.

'I'm going to do nothing. Never expect that, eh? WILL YOU!' he shouted to nothing. He stood for a moment. 'Is that long enough?'

'I'm not certain,' the box said.

'So, something has a lock around the TARDIS. Usually silly against my sonic, but I didn't know what I was aiming at. Now, however...' He smiled, looking to the box. 'Beam me back down!'

'Negative.'

'What, why?'

'You could exceed capacity.'

'But... I... What if you escorted me there, not as a Member, but as a technician. I can fix the glitch in the system that's taking up a fine spot of the population. Don't count me, I'll get rid of it, you get more income, I go off to save Clara.'

'You would not have clearance.'

'What, where Clara is?'

'Affirmative.'

'Then give me clearance!'

'Unable.'

'Fat lot of good you are. I'm shouting at a box. A TIN BOX! I want my box back. It's blue and big and useful,' he moaned. 'I love my box.'

'You could restore your ship and then fly to this box at Winter sixteen-apple-B. There you could try and convince me, in the past, to let you down to save your Clara.'

'Would you?'

'Unable to confirm. Timestreams are undecided. Flux point in time.'

'Okay, so I can change things,' he smiled. 'That makes thing simpler!'

'In what way?'

'I can go back further. Interrupt the stream. Timey-Wimey. The Garden is a place of great beauty because it's leaking, of course. It's loose. Time's loose. That's how the TARDIS slipped out of sync. And then someone locked it out. I'll get there later. Now, we save Clara!'

'Affirmative.' The box started to whir.

The Doctor watched it, curious, until a right white light overtook the glass room. From outside, it seemed to explode into a supernova, a burst of fire and light, but the glass remained in tact. Trees swayed slightly with the force.

The Doctor awoke, face down in the dirt. He grimace, taking a dead leaf in his mouth, before bouncing up and clawing it out.

'Where are we, at the site?' he asked.

'It is moving,' the box said. 'Follow.' The box hovered away, fairly quickly, making the Doctor chase after it.

For a while they had no indication that they were close, but eventually, as the trees started to thicken again, they could hear it. Thumps, like footsteps.

It was the TARDIS.

What?

How could it be the TARDIS, taking people to places where they'd be eaten by the earth?

He decided that would be a question he'd ask it directly, as they came to face it's flickering blue shape.

The Doctor soniced it, washing it in green waves, bringing it into a more solid shape, slowly. He had to stay there, and it was possibly the longest he'd ever just stood and held the sonic straight at something.

His face was iron, his jaw clenched. They didn't have to be, but he didn't want to think about what would happen if the crack it was stuck in closed, and left the TARDIS on the other side.

After maybe ten minute, the TARDIS eventually, with a ear-splitting CRACK, materialised fully onto the called leaves. He smiled and stepped inside, waving goodbye to the tin box.

'Right then,' he said. 'To Winter sixteen-apple-B.'


	6. Chapter 6: Wood

'We can't just let her go!' Loa yelled. Kel retreated, unable to look her in the eye. 'We can't leave her out there alone. She doesn't even have a bracelet! She can't get anywhere!'

'Loa,' Kel said, as softly as he could. 'That girl was determined to go out... and you know what happens. People are going missing... the footprints are all over the place, like it's searching for us.'

'But she's alone! I'm going after her.'

'Loa, no you're not.'

'Who the hell said you get to decide for me!' she yelled. Polly remained silent, as did the mass in the corner, hidden under a black blanket.

'Loa, I'm not letting you go out there alone.'

'Then come with me. Help me with this rock.' She started to push it aside, Kel watching. 'Help me!'

'Loa, we can't-'

'I'm not leaving her out there. No. Not like we didn't go back for Polly's son.'

Kel said nothing, but moved over and started to push with her, moving it easily. It was light for a rock. Loa ran out first, and Polly waved to them as Kel chased after her.

'Loa!' Kel yelled, running behind her. Loa has a great nose for this, she was chasing Clara's scent easily against all the chlorophyll.

'Clara?!' Loa yelled. She stopped dead, letting Kel catch up with her. 'She was here a while ago.' Loa looked up to the new morning sky. 'Probably stayed here last night. Poor girl.'

'Which way did she go?' Kel asked her.

Loa sniffed the air, turning in a circle before catching it. She bolted, lizard like, to the left. Kel followed as best he could, into the trees, through bushes and low-hanging branches. Fruit flew past him, twigs scratching his cheeks as they tore through The Garden, searching for her.

It was half an hour before they heard the first one. A footstep. A booming, thick sound that stopped Loa dead. She looked back to Kel, who caught her in a hug.

'What if they got her?' Loa asked him into his shoulder. 'What if...'

'Loa, we'll get her. She'll be okay.'

'But what if she's not!'

Another footstep. It sounded closer.

'Clara was right,' Kel said. 'It's not shaking the ground. It's not a footstep.'

'But what could it be?' Loa whispered. She wasn't sure if it was better or worse to know it wasn't a footstep. Not some huge, tree-like giant. No massive creature. Just a sound. A sound that follows people who get lost in the woods.

A scream.

'Clara!' Loa yelled. She shot off, Kel close behind, into a clearing where they could see Clara as she stood, staring into space. Something was wrong.

She looked too tall.

'Clara!' Loa and Kel both yelled, but she didn't answer. She just stood there. Hovering.

They only stopped a few meters away, when they saw her eyes. They were open, but without pupils. White. Ghostly.

She hovered above the ground, stunned into a statue.

Loa approached slowly, wanting to touch her. She reached out, and Kel screamed too.

She spun back, and saw Kel elevating into the air. Maybe a foot off the ground, he stopped.

'Kel?' Loa whispered staring at him. His eyes had glazed over, a pale grim white. His face was slack.

She almost walked over to him, but knew that there was something doing this to him and Clara.

She felt a jab in her back.

She screamed.

The world peeled into white, and she felt the weight lift off her feet.

She knew she was in the same position as Clara and Kel. She knew she was hovering over the thick grass, that there was something in there hunting her.

But there was nothing here but the plants. And the booms. Was it that?

No, she hadn't heard anything near her. It was something else.

But what?

Polly couldn't do anything from here. She looked to the mass, in the corner. 'What happened to you... I know it was awful, but...'

'You want to know if I saw what did it?' it said, it's voice thick and rustic.

'Yes.'

'No, I didn't. I didn't hear it either. It wasn't whatever has started making those noises. It was before those had even started.'

'So, what was it?'

'I have no idea. I suspect a carnivorous plant.'

Polly looked at it. 'Can I remove the blanket?'

'It's there for you, not me, Polly.'

'Who put it there?'

'Kel did, when they found me. They could hear me moaning, and they tried to save me. No chance.'

'What are you?'

'I am dead, Polly.'

Polly moved over to it, standing of the lump, in the corner. Now she looked, she could see it breathing. Shifting every now-and-again.

'I'm going to.'

'Okay,' the mass said. 'Prepare yourself, dear.'

'I'm fine.'

'Go on, take a look.'

Polly grasped the blanket and, for a second, thought about not looking at all, But she felt like it was going to change something. She felt like it would enlighten her in some way.

She pulled the blanket off.

Beneath it lay a disfigured, half-rotten figure of a young man. He started at her, not in pain, but in pity. He pitied her.

From his head downwards there was little but root. The tree had a vine wrapped entirely around him, dragging him into the plant-life mess that was his lower abdomen. He was almost unrecognisable.

'You okay?' he wheezed.

'I'll live,' Polly said, not convincing even herself. 'What did this to you?'

'I don't know. Something powerful. I was in the middle of nowhere one second, then here the next. I couldn't move. I was stunned and then, I was eaten. It slowly took me over.'

The wood that had claimed most of his body creaked under his movement. He cringed. 'It's not too bad,' he said. 'It's peaceful. Whatever it is, it's not putting me in pain. Which is nice, I suppose. All things considered.'

'You're being eaten by a tree,' Polly raised her eyebrow.

'I am. And soon I will be the tree itself. I'll be fine.' He seemed to believe that, too. That he was fine for being eaten by a tree. 'Go, Polly. They need you. The longer you stay here, the more chance you have of getting caught. And you might turn out like me. Go on, Polly.' He smiled to her. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

Polly tried not to show how much it upset her to leave as she pushed the rock aside. But it was her job to go and get Clara, Loa and Kel.

She wasn't outside for long.


	7. Chapter 7: Four things and a Lizard

The TARDIS materialized in the same field Clara, Loa and Kel had all been stunned and held in. The Doctor saw the sight from his console monitor, and new it was a message to him.

He walked out slowly, into the grass. There was no-one but the levitating bodies before him. He smiled. Clara was alive. Stuck, but alive.

'The Doctor.' A man walked up to him, emerging from the trees. His skin was chalk-white, with red lips and a cold smile. He wore a black coat that trailed the floor, hiding his legs. His chest was covered in what seemed to be leather.

'Do I know you?' The Doctor watched him approach.

'You shouldn't, no. But I know some things about you.'

'Oh really?'

'Like your weak spots.' He looked to Clara. 'Your friends are the best parts of you. So what happens when we start taking them and ruining them, I wonder?'

'Adam,' he said, nodding. 'You were the help.'

'In a way,' he said. 'Forgive me, I haven't introduced myself.'

'You don't have to. All you have to do is get them down. Now.'

'Oh, I do?'

'Yes,' the Doctor looked at him, his eyes burning. 'You do.'

'Well, I would, only I have a proposition to make you that's far more interesting. I want to prove something to you.'

'What?'

'I want to prove that you don't need a monster to ruin your friends,' the man said. 'A friend of yours is waiting your need right now, in the year two thousand and eight.'

'What are you doing?'

'Me? Oh, nothing. Just proving a point, like I said.'

'I've changed my mind,' the Doctor said. He soniced Clara and the two hovering people next to her, and they opened their eyes and dropped. 'I want to know your name.'

The man seemed surprised. 'You knew the frequency?'

'Repetitive bubble-locks. Nice trick. Fancy. But easy to break once you know what you're dealing with. Your name?'

'Sephiro.'

'Sephiro?' The Doctor looked at him. 'Well, Sephiro. I want you to know something about me.' Clara, Loa and Kel all started to stand, rubbing their eyes. 'I'm the guy hidden alien societies are scared of. I'm the man monsters tell horror stories about. I'm the beginning and the end of things. You wanted pain in the institute? Take it. What do you want here, because you can take it. I'm done fighting, but I'll rip you apart if you bring another soul into this.'

'That was dramatic.'

'... thank you.'

'Alas, Doctor, I'm not here to make jokes or to give monologues,' he pulled a pistol, one reminiscent of an old human one, but with a glowing red tip, prepared to fire a super-heated pellet. 'I'm here to motivate you to do things right.'

Seripho shot Clara, hitting her directly between the eyes. The pellet scorched out of the other side of her, leaving a bloody, hot trail in it's wake.

She dropped to the floor.

'Clara!' The Doctor screamed, dropping down next to her, catching her head. He held her, fighting back tears when Seripho wondered over.

'I can fix her,' he said.

'Fix her. Now.'

'I would. But you said no to our little idea, so... sorry.'

'What is it. I'll do it.'

'Will you? Well, that's inconsistent.'

'Tell me.'

'Go to one of your past friends. Might have travelled with you, might not have. They're having some trouble and I want you to see that even you can't save everyone. That the people you leave behind face consequences. You swan off to the farthest reaches of the universe, but the little people you leave behind have to deal with the cracks you create.'

'Where.'

'Earth. Two thousand and eight. Anyone, Doctor, you can think of.'

'Why are you doing this?'

'Because we had to rethink things after Adam. He was our emotional scout, and you ruined that. Here we had a little experiment looking into Human biology, but you ruined that, too. This time we're looking into our one adversary; you.'

'This was an experiment?'

'Isn't everything?'

'You sick, twisted creature.'

'Yes, maybe. But this time, you'll have to do things our way. And we'll know. We'll be watching. Playing ball with terrorists, Doctor. Naughty naughty.'

'Sephiro, please take her and help her. Or let me take her.'

'Begging? Please...'

'Sephiro,'

'Oh you're boring!' he pulled the gun to Loa's head, holding it over her. Loa trembled. Kel looked at Sephiro in quiet fury, unable to move still. He was hurting too much at his legs. 'Maybe we could make things even more interesting, eh Doctor?'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that you have gotten in our way a few too many times, now. And by that, I mean twice. This being the second.'

'In the way?'

'I assume you were going to try and stop out experiments?'

'Of course I was. You're feeding people to a planet.'

'False! We're actually feeding people through a planet. The trees get a slight snack, but the genetic and psychic information goes straight into the clouds.'

They looked up. The grey, swirling clouds howled above them.

'Ever wonder why they change with the weather?'

'Because you feed people through, and in the winter they're scared, cold.'

'Makes the clouds dark and damp, yes. Then, in the summer, the heat gets to people. Makes them happier overall. brightest blue. And then Autumn and spring in the middle. Gorgeous, don't you think?'

'It's awful! You're farming people!'

'For science!'

'Oh, you don't even deserve to talk to me right now.'

Seripho moved the gun, shaking in front of Loa's face. She whimpered. 'Go get your friend, Doctor.'

The Doctor stood, looking down at Clara, feeling a rage within him he could barely hold back.

'You save your friend, you get her back. If you can't, you get her back anyway. I just want you to experience it, Doc.' Seripho smiled. 'Good luck!'

The Doctor walked away, into the TARDIS, and, just as he was about to close the door, Seripho felt the need to talk again; 'Oh, and Doctor?'

'What?' he asked without looking back.

'Don't blink.'

The Doctor slammed the door, and set off to 2008, to see someone he'd only met once, briefly, whilst taking care of four things and a lizard.


End file.
